Last week a federal jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh issued a statement expressing "hope [that] this verdict provides a small amount of closure" to everyone affected by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
His words were echoed by other officials and victims. "The verdict, undoubtedly a difficult decision for the jury, gives me relief and closure as well as the ability to keep moving forward," said transit police officer Richard Donohue, who was seriously injured during a shoot-out with Tsarnaev and his older brother in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Most everyone wants this to be true: We hope that the victims of the bombing — including the families of the four people murdered by the Tsarnaev brothers — can find some relief from their anguish.
Will this death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev help them?
For months, many people close to the case have been ambivalent about this outcome. A poll in April found that only 15% of Boston residents said they wanted Tsarnaev to receive the death penalty. Also last month, Bill and Denise Richard, whose 8-year-old son was killed in the bombing, wrote an open letter in the Boston Globe urging the Justice Department to take the death penalty "off the table."
[For more of this story, written by Jason Marsh, go to http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/...sarnaev-forgiveness/]
Comments (2)